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Spirituals: The Power of Community and Music (Part 2)
In this episode, Christen identifies the musical characteristics that make up Black Spirituals. See how the American Black community has preserved Spirituals, in spite of its obstacles—acknowledging the transformative impact the art form has made still today.
Episode Notes
Research:
African American Song
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African American Spirituals
The Power of Black Music: Interpreting Its History from Africa to the United States
Traditional Work Songs
McIntosh County Shouters, “Move, Daniel”
The McIntosh County Shouters
Plantation Dance Ring Shout Nat Turner (1800-1831)
Lift Every Voice: The History of African American Music
The Origins of Proslavery Christianity: White and Black Evangelicals in Colonial and Antebellum Virginia
Cultural Codes: Makings of a Black Music Philosophy
Our History – Fisk Jubilee Singers
Overseer And Driver
Fisk Jubilee Singers
The Soundtrack of the George Floyd Protests
Hip-hop is the soundtrack to Black Lives Matter protests, continuing a tradition that dates back to the blues
Music:
“Judgement Day Outside My Door” by Lost Ghosts
“Early in the Mornin’” performed by Unidentified performers at State Penitentiary, Camp #10, Parchman, Mississippi (Accessed by the Library of Congress’s National Jukebox)
“Hoe Emma Hoe” performed by Larry Earl Jr., Christina Lane and Willie Wright
“Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child” performed by Hope Foye
“Steal Away” performed by the Fisk Jubilee Singers
“Go down, Moses” performed by Oral Moses
“Deshacer” by Azteca X
“Testimony” by Cast of Characters
“Against the Clock” by Nu Alkemi$t
“Tomorrow Things” by GLASWING
“Go Down Moses” performed by Louis Armstrong with the Sy Oliver Choir and The All Stars
“Keep Your Hand on the Plow” performed by Mahalia Jackson
“Sound of Da Police”, by KRS ONE
“Life in Binary” by Falls
“Constellations” by Chelsea McGough
Transcript
Christen: Welcome back to Power Play, the podcast where we bring you stories about the power of music, the music of the powerful, music as a means to power, and what happens when music and power go head to head. I’m your host, Christen Crumpler. Let’s begin!
Music and Enslaved Black People (contd.)
Christen: In the last episode, we left off covering spirituals’ religious origins, but I mentioned there’s another fundamental part to them: The personal testimonies of those enslaved.
For spirituals under this context, there are two main styles.
First, there are sorrow songs—songs themed from Biblical messages and stories of “grief, longing, and” pleading prayer. These settings were used because they showed so much similarity to the lives Black people had in slavery.
[MUSIC: Judgement Day Outside My Door plays, by Lost Ghosts]
Christen: One of the early forms of sorrow songs were the work songs sung during forced labor. While work songs could be in a variety of different labors, many of them came from the plantations.
On plantations, singing was allowed for the enslaved, but it was—much like other aspects—not by choice.
Many white overseers and Drivers—these were enslaved people that were put in charge by the plantation owners—viewed silence while working as a chance for those to conspire. They would use their power to force the enslaved workers to sing, hoping it would result in higher “productivity” and “morale.”
[MUSIC: Judgement Day Outside My Door plays, by Lost Ghosts; fades into silence]
Christen: Enslaved plantation workers often used a type of work song, called an “arwhoolie.”
[MUSIC: Early in the Mornin’ plays, performed by Unidentified performers at State Penitentiary, Camp #10, Parchman, Mississippi]
Christen: An “arwhoolie,” or also known as a “field holler,” is a “plaintive chant with only a few words, sung by a worker in the fields.” These musical conversations could also use call and response!
What stood out was that it could coordinate the workers and their labor across different plantations, not just the workers within the same field. And those that were enslaved tried, in ways, creating community from this coordination.
[MUSIC: Early in the Mornin’ plays, performed by Unidentified performers at State Penitentiary, Camp #10, Parchman, Mississippi; fades into silence as the next narration begins]
Christen: Hidden under these hollers were feelings of misery from being in captivity, allowing the singers to pass off the songs as optimism in front of the overseers.
There would be arwhoolies for many situations, detailing the different tasks of plantation life. For example, here is the arwhoolie “Hoe Emma Hoe,” performed by Larry Earl Jr., Christina Lane, and Willie Wright. In the video, the arwhoolie is being sung while the actors are hoeing the ground. But, I bet you could find other meanings for how they’re using the word hoe...
[MUSIC: Hoe Emma Hoe plays, performed by Larry Earl Jr., Christina Lane and Willie Wright; fades into silence as the narration begins again]
Christen: And from these sorrow-filled work songs evolved the sorrow songs of spirituals. Some notable examples are the songs “And the Moon Will Turn to Blood,” “Let My People Go,” and “O Rocks, Don’t Fall on Me.”
Let me play a portion of the sorrow song “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child.” It’s another famed title detailing a sense of loneliness and mistreatment.
[MUSIC: Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child plays, performed by Hope Foye; fades into silence before the next narration starts]
Christen: The second style of spirituals are jubilees. These songs are in stark contrast from the mood and themes of the sorrow songs.
Jubilees are filled with hope, and singing them would often release tensions. These spirituals, instead, would use Biblical messages of triumph and deliverance to bring ambition to Black people, hoping for the end of their captivity.
The spiritual we heard at the beginning, “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” is a part of the genre of Jubilees. Another example of them would be the spiritual “Steal Away,” which sings about salvation coming from the Lord.
[MUSIC: Steal Away plays, performed by the Fisk Jubilee Singers; plays alone for a bit and then plays under narration]
Paving A Road to Freedom
Christen: While under constant supervision, you might think it'd be impossible to sing aloud such messages of sadness and wanting to be free. Well, that’s what’s special about the spirituals during slavery.
[MUSIC: Steal Away plays, performed by the Fisk Jubilee Singers; fades into silence]
Christen: The messages of each of the spirituals would be hidden in coded lyrics with multiple meanings. This technique is called Signifying, a skill with origins from African trickster tales and insult songs. Often, the lyrics’ context would be of anger towards slavery and wanting to be free in many ways.
Many of the spirituals would recount the chronicles of the Old Testament, which held a lot of stories about freedom from bondage. The tale of Moses being an example of stories used for coded lyrics. Spirituals would incorporate themes of Moses leading the Israelites from Pharoah’s bondage in Egypt.
[MUSIC: Of A Feather plays, by Falls]
Christen: This use of signifying within spirituals, ring shouts, and work songs is a key factor in enslaved Black people escaping from slavery. The emotions and messages from this genre of music motivated thousands of enslaved to leave the South taking the Underground Railroad.
Mention of the River of Jordan described the North and freedom. The other side of a cloud would signify heaven.
Spirituals like “I Got My Ticket” are assumed to signify escape on the Underground Railroad, as comparisons between it and the actual railroad were made in its lyrics.
[MUSIC: Of A Feather plays, by Falls; fades into silence]
Christen: Harriet Tubman—the notable Underground Railroad conductor who escaped slavery and helped others to escape—would use the song “Go Down, Moses,” signifying escape to freedom, to identify herself to those enslaved who might want to escape to the North.
The lyrics’ refrain is: “Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt’s land and tell old Pharaoh to let My people go!”
[MUSIC: Go down, Moses plays, performed by Oral Moses; plays alone for a bit and then fades into silence]
Christen: After Emancipation in the 1860s, Black people—newly freed from slavery—were trying to figure out what their lives would be like. This time was spent searching for their families separated by slave auctions and escaping the plantations, or trying to find work that would actually pay.
In their new communities, they made African American churches that would not only serve as a religious institution, but a hub for social, charitable, musical activities and more.
The power of this reclamation is critical! When for so long the Black community had to hide their worship—like ring shouts—within the shadows, they could now have establishments of their own to practice them in.
But there were roadblocks making it difficult to pass them on.
[MUSIC: Deshacer plays, by Azteca X]
Christen: Most of the spirituals from slavery weren’t recorded or written down. So, the singing and passing down of Spirituals had largely been an oral tradition, prior to Emancipation.
William Francis Allen, a white observer of the shouts and Spirituals, had a notable part in its preservation. Allen, along with Charles Pickard Ware and Lucy McKim Garrison, also white, authored the Slave Songs of the United States in 1867. The publication was the first to notate and largely distribute the songs of the Spirituals.
Though, through this dictation of the Spirituals, what was written could not capture the true nature of these songs.
Then there’s the split of the Black churches into two general groups, regarding their sacred music styles. One continued the religious practices from the plantation, while the other frowned upon this.
Southern black ministers, influenced by middle-class white people, believed it was in their best interest from now on to align the congregation’s activities with those of the “genteel middle-class whites.”
They were trying to elevate the status of African Americans as a race. This meant distancing themselves as much as possible from what their practices and activities in slavery were, replacing them with formal ones like hymns.
[MUSIC: Deshacer plays, by Azteca X; fades into silence]
Christen: But it was groups like the Fisk Jubilee Singers that helped to continue the preservation of Spirituals.
The Fisk Jubilee Singers were founded as a nine-member choral ensemble of students from Fisk University. The group was formed by white northerner George L. White, the university’s treasurer and music professor, along with African American pianist Ella Sheppard in 1871.
Fisk University, originally known as the Fisk Free Colored School, had been struggling financially year to year since its opening in 1866.
To fund and keep the university open, White had set the group on a singing tour. Initially, the tour was local, but expanded to travelling along the former Underground Railroad route.
[MUSIC: Testimony plays, by Cast of Characters; fades in and plays underneath narration]
Christen: It wasn’t until their concert at Oberlin College in Ohio that things started to look up.
Up until then, they had been performing with a classical repertoire, with Spirituals as their encore. But for this concert, it was a program entirely comprised of Spirituals.
Their audience, mainly of white ministers, responded well to the new program—along with other churches in the North. The attention the Fisk Jubilee Singers were getting singing Spirituals eventually took them to places like the White House. They even performed before Queen Victoria, in Great Britain!
[MUSIC: Testimony plays, by Cast of Characters, along with Against the Clock playing, by Nu Alkemi$t; Testimony fades into silence as the next narration begins, with Against the Clock playing underneath]
Christen: While the Jubilee Singers did play an important part—preserving Spirituals in the general sense—it was vastly different from its original performance within the plantation setting.
The Singers had simplified Spirituals significantly by adding choral multi-part harmony, for concert, and removing any trace of despair or protest within its text. This made the music more aligned with what white audiences were comfortable hearing.
A manifestation of the values those southern Black ministers had wanted to appeal to. This change fed into the idea that the Fisk Jubilee Singers were "helping to 'lift up' the African American race" by doing so.
[MUSIC: Against the Clock plays, by Nu Alkemi$t; fades into silence]
Christen: Again, showing that the hope to have any power within the American society....would have to come from giving up the power that comes from expressing your own identity.
The elements of Call and Response, heterophony, and Signifying were not present in these versions of the Spirituals. The very things that made the Spirituals.....Spirituals.
If these features weren’t being preserved here, then where?
Well, that depends on what you view as preservation. For this topic, I look to the perspective brought by the American historian, Lawrence Levine.
[MUSIC: Tomorrow Things plays, by GLASWING]
The Here and Now
Christen: When it comes to culture, Levine talks about how its strength comes from a culture’s ability to adapt and transform within a new situation—not by staying exactly the same. Because that may be viewed more as “stagnation not life.”
Portia K. Maultsby—Professor Emerita of Ethnomusicology at Indiana University—speaks about the transformations of African traditions in America.
In Maultsby’s discussions on the topic, she summarizes that even if West African elements may not survive as they were, the culture concepts do. Not just surviving, but thriving in the new ways they appear.
As we talk about Spirituals past the plantations, we can look at it through the lens of how it’s transformed and the concepts that carry on. Some of the original characteristics of Spirituals influenced the genres that followed it.
[MUSIC: Tomorrow Things plays, by GLASWING; fades into silence as the previous narration ends]
Christen: The secular African American music of Blues shares the shouting and moaning from Spirituals and ring shouts...
[MUSIC: Go Down Moses plays, performed by Louis Armstrong with the Sy Oliver Choir and The All Stars]
Christen: The call and response aspect was also used...
[MUSIC: Go Down Moses plays, performed by Louis Armstrong with the Sy Oliver Choir and The All Stars; comes up to provide an example and then plays underneath narration]
Christen: Same with the coded lyrics made from Signifying...
[MUSIC: Go Down Moses plays, performed by Louis Armstrong with the Sy Oliver Choir and The All Stars; fades into silence]
Christen: And those same traits are seen in the musical genre of Gospel. From the time after Emancipation to the 1930s, Spirituals had transformed into Gospel due to the revival of including these practices into worship.
Much of the musical meanings from Spirituals, still found within Gospel, helped to further create major social change.
[MUSIC: Keep Your Hand on the Plow plays, performed by Mahalia Jackson; plays alone for a bit and then plays beneath to the next narration]
Christen: Gospel had become a key vehicle within the Civil Rights movement. In a time where it was more important than ever to unify the Black community, the group participation of Spirituals were highlighted here. Songs like “Keep Your Hand on the Plow,” which you’re hearing now, helped to drive the movement forward.
Using the approaches and lyrical text of Spirituals, Gospel gave new life to the original purpose of them. Where the jubilee songs of slavery talked about hope for freedom, Gospel during the Civil Rights era talked about hope for racial equality and for injustices to end.
[MUSIC: Keep Your Hand on the Plow plays, performed by Mahalia Jackson; fades into silence]
Christen: And when you look at today’s protest music—for movements such as the Black Lives Matter movement—it unifies the Black community in new ways.
Rap is generally the musical style used for protesting these days, sharing its likeness to Spirituals. But when you compare the two in how they mobilize a group, rap does it differently.
With today’s protest music, a song could be released and then played at a protest the very next day! It has even more ability to quickly affect and change things.
While present-day protest music may not be centered around one song or piece of music to define it, when compared to Spirituals during the Civil Rights Era, instead it’s defined by multiple songs that each have their own messages to bring to the movements.
Though they’ve been transformed, those messages continue to highlight the same injustices the Black community has faced during slavery—protesting against the brutality, inequality, and discrimination seen within the American society and system.
And the transformative characteristics of Spirituals have the power to come back in new ways in future settings.
[MUSIC: Sound of Da Police plays, by KRS ONE, along with Life in Binary playing, by Falls; Sound of Da Police fades into silence before the next narration starts, with Life in Binary plays underneath]
From my research for this episode, one of the many words that I’ve come away with is survival. I mean, it certainly rings true. And it’s seen in West African music’s journey during slavery. Weaved throughout the messages of Spirituals...
To have vital parts of a way of life, not only manage to survive, but transform itself under the circumstances of something like slavery is powerful. To continue to engage in things that emphasize your humanity, when it seems like everything else says you don’t have any, is powerful. And the hope that it brings, like nature blooming from cracked, hard concrete...is powerful.
I’m not tryin’ to beat you over the head with this, really! But it is so amazing to see how the connection between music and community thrived despite it all.
[MUSIC: Life in Binary plays, by Falls; fades into silence]
Showing that music has the power to shape so much of history.
Outro
[MUSIC: Constellations plays, by Chelsea McGough]
Christen: Thank you for listening to Power Play. This was part two of a two part episode series. The creator of Power Play is none other than Karbo. This episode was researched and edited by myself, Christen Crumpler, and produced by Tamberly Ferguson. Production help and advisement by Frank Dominguez and Bruce Scott.
The music you heard today was “Judgement Day Outside My Door” by Lost Ghosts; “Early in the Mornin’” performed by Unidentified performers at State Penitentiary, Camp #10, Parchman, Mississippi; “Hoe Emma Hoe” performed by Larry Earl Jr., Christina Lane and Willie Wright; “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child” performed by Hope Foye; “Steal Away” performed by the Fisk Jubilee Singers; “Of A Feather” by Falls; “Go down, Moses” performed by Oral Moses; “Deshacer” by Azteca X; “Testimony” by Cast of Characters; “Against the Clock” by Nu Alkemi$t; “Tomorrow Things” by GLASWING; “Go Down Moses” performed by Louis Armstrong with the Sy Oliver Choir and The All Stars; “Keep Your Hand on the Plow” performed by Mahalia Jackson; “Sound of Da Police”, by KRS ONE; “Life in Binary” by Falls; and “Constellations” by Chelsea McGough
Research regarding this episode can also be found within the episode’s show notes.
Lastly, thank you to you—our listeners—for tuning into this episode of Power Play. Power Play is presented by WDAV Classical Public Radio. If you like what you heard, you can find more information on this episode, and other great programming, at wdav.org/subscribe. Catch ya in the next one.
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In this episode, Christen identifies the musical characteristics that make up Black Spirituals. See how the American Black community has preserved Spirituals, in spite of its obstacles—acknowledging the transformative impact the art form has made still today.
Episode Notes
Research:
African American Song
Pre-Civil War African-American Slavery
African American Spirituals
The Power of Black Music: Interpreting Its History from Africa to the United States
Traditional Work Songs
McIntosh County Shouters, “Move, Daniel”
The McIntosh County Shouters
Plantation Dance Ring Shout Nat Turner (1800-1831)
Lift Every Voice: The History of African American Music
The Origins of Proslavery Christianity: White and Black Evangelicals in Colonial and Antebellum Virginia
Cultural Codes: Makings of a Black Music Philosophy
Our History – Fisk Jubilee Singers
Overseer And Driver
Fisk Jubilee Singers
The Soundtrack of the George Floyd Protests
Hip-hop is the soundtrack to Black Lives Matter protests, continuing a tradition that dates back to the blues
Music:
“Judgement Day Outside My Door” by Lost Ghosts
“Early in the Mornin’” performed by Unidentified performers at State Penitentiary, Camp #10, Parchman, Mississippi (Accessed by the Library of Congress’s National Jukebox)
“Hoe Emma Hoe” performed by Larry Earl Jr., Christina Lane and Willie Wright
“Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child” performed by Hope Foye
“Steal Away” performed by the Fisk Jubilee Singers
“Go down, Moses” performed by Oral Moses
“Deshacer” by Azteca X
“Testimony” by Cast of Characters
“Against the Clock” by Nu Alkemi$t
“Tomorrow Things” by GLASWING
“Go Down Moses” performed by Louis Armstrong with the Sy Oliver Choir and The All Stars
“Keep Your Hand on the Plow” performed by Mahalia Jackson
“Sound of Da Police”, by KRS ONE
“Life in Binary” by Falls
“Constellations” by Chelsea McGough
Transcript
Christen: Welcome back to Power Play, the podcast where we bring you stories about the power of music, the music of the powerful, music as a means to power, and what happens when music and power go head to head. I’m your host, Christen Crumpler. Let’s begin!
Music and Enslaved Black People (contd.)
Christen: In the last episode, we left off covering spirituals’ religious origins, but I mentioned there’s another fundamental part to them: The personal testimonies of those enslaved.
For spirituals under this context, there are two main styles.
First, there are sorrow songs—songs themed from Biblical messages and stories of “grief, longing, and” pleading prayer. These settings were used because they showed so much similarity to the lives Black people had in slavery.
[MUSIC: Judgement Day Outside My Door plays, by Lost Ghosts]
Christen: One of the early forms of sorrow songs were the work songs sung during forced labor. While work songs could be in a variety of different labors, many of them came from the plantations.
On plantations, singing was allowed for the enslaved, but it was—much like other aspects—not by choice.
Many white overseers and Drivers—these were enslaved people that were put in charge by the plantation owners—viewed silence while working as a chance for those to conspire. They would use their power to force the enslaved workers to sing, hoping it would result in higher “productivity” and “morale.”
[MUSIC: Judgement Day Outside My Door plays, by Lost Ghosts; fades into silence]
Christen: Enslaved plantation workers often used a type of work song, called an “arwhoolie.”
[MUSIC: Early in the Mornin’ plays, performed by Unidentified performers at State Penitentiary, Camp #10, Parchman, Mississippi]
Christen: An “arwhoolie,” or also known as a “field holler,” is a “plaintive chant with only a few words, sung by a worker in the fields.” These musical conversations could also use call and response!
What stood out was that it could coordinate the workers and their labor across different plantations, not just the workers within the same field. And those that were enslaved tried, in ways, creating community from this coordination.
[MUSIC: Early in the Mornin’ plays, performed by Unidentified performers at State Penitentiary, Camp #10, Parchman, Mississippi; fades into silence as the next narration begins]
Christen: Hidden under these hollers were feelings of misery from being in captivity, allowing the singers to pass off the songs as optimism in front of the overseers.
There would be arwhoolies for many situations, detailing the different tasks of plantation life. For example, here is the arwhoolie “Hoe Emma Hoe,” performed by Larry Earl Jr., Christina Lane, and Willie Wright. In the video, the arwhoolie is being sung while the actors are hoeing the ground. But, I bet you could find other meanings for how they’re using the word hoe...
[MUSIC: Hoe Emma Hoe plays, performed by Larry Earl Jr., Christina Lane and Willie Wright; fades into silence as the narration begins again]
Christen: And from these sorrow-filled work songs evolved the sorrow songs of spirituals. Some notable examples are the songs “And the Moon Will Turn to Blood,” “Let My People Go,” and “O Rocks, Don’t Fall on Me.”
Let me play a portion of the sorrow song “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child.” It’s another famed title detailing a sense of loneliness and mistreatment.
[MUSIC: Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child plays, performed by Hope Foye; fades into silence before the next narration starts]
Christen: The second style of spirituals are jubilees. These songs are in stark contrast from the mood and themes of the sorrow songs.
Jubilees are filled with hope, and singing them would often release tensions. These spirituals, instead, would use Biblical messages of triumph and deliverance to bring ambition to Black people, hoping for the end of their captivity.
The spiritual we heard at the beginning, “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” is a part of the genre of Jubilees. Another example of them would be the spiritual “Steal Away,” which sings about salvation coming from the Lord.
[MUSIC: Steal Away plays, performed by the Fisk Jubilee Singers; plays alone for a bit and then plays under narration]
Paving A Road to Freedom
Christen: While under constant supervision, you might think it'd be impossible to sing aloud such messages of sadness and wanting to be free. Well, that’s what’s special about the spirituals during slavery.
[MUSIC: Steal Away plays, performed by the Fisk Jubilee Singers; fades into silence]
Christen: The messages of each of the spirituals would be hidden in coded lyrics with multiple meanings. This technique is called Signifying, a skill with origins from African trickster tales and insult songs. Often, the lyrics’ context would be of anger towards slavery and wanting to be free in many ways.
Many of the spirituals would recount the chronicles of the Old Testament, which held a lot of stories about freedom from bondage. The tale of Moses being an example of stories used for coded lyrics. Spirituals would incorporate themes of Moses leading the Israelites from Pharoah’s bondage in Egypt.
[MUSIC: Of A Feather plays, by Falls]
Christen: This use of signifying within spirituals, ring shouts, and work songs is a key factor in enslaved Black people escaping from slavery. The emotions and messages from this genre of music motivated thousands of enslaved to leave the South taking the Underground Railroad.
Mention of the River of Jordan described the North and freedom. The other side of a cloud would signify heaven.
Spirituals like “I Got My Ticket” are assumed to signify escape on the Underground Railroad, as comparisons between it and the actual railroad were made in its lyrics.
[MUSIC: Of A Feather plays, by Falls; fades into silence]
Christen: Harriet Tubman—the notable Underground Railroad conductor who escaped slavery and helped others to escape—would use the song “Go Down, Moses,” signifying escape to freedom, to identify herself to those enslaved who might want to escape to the North.
The lyrics’ refrain is: “Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt’s land and tell old Pharaoh to let My people go!”
[MUSIC: Go down, Moses plays, performed by Oral Moses; plays alone for a bit and then fades into silence]
Christen: After Emancipation in the 1860s, Black people—newly freed from slavery—were trying to figure out what their lives would be like. This time was spent searching for their families separated by slave auctions and escaping the plantations, or trying to find work that would actually pay.
In their new communities, they made African American churches that would not only serve as a religious institution, but a hub for social, charitable, musical activities and more.
The power of this reclamation is critical! When for so long the Black community had to hide their worship—like ring shouts—within the shadows, they could now have establishments of their own to practice them in.
But there were roadblocks making it difficult to pass them on.
[MUSIC: Deshacer plays, by Azteca X]
Christen: Most of the spirituals from slavery weren’t recorded or written down. So, the singing and passing down of Spirituals had largely been an oral tradition, prior to Emancipation.
William Francis Allen, a white observer of the shouts and Spirituals, had a notable part in its preservation. Allen, along with Charles Pickard Ware and Lucy McKim Garrison, also white, authored the Slave Songs of the United States in 1867. The publication was the first to notate and largely distribute the songs of the Spirituals.
Though, through this dictation of the Spirituals, what was written could not capture the true nature of these songs.
Then there’s the split of the Black churches into two general groups, regarding their sacred music styles. One continued the religious practices from the plantation, while the other frowned upon this.
Southern black ministers, influenced by middle-class white people, believed it was in their best interest from now on to align the congregation’s activities with those of the “genteel middle-class whites.”
They were trying to elevate the status of African Americans as a race. This meant distancing themselves as much as possible from what their practices and activities in slavery were, replacing them with formal ones like hymns.
[MUSIC: Deshacer plays, by Azteca X; fades into silence]
Christen: But it was groups like the Fisk Jubilee Singers that helped to continue the preservation of Spirituals.
The Fisk Jubilee Singers were founded as a nine-member choral ensemble of students from Fisk University. The group was formed by white northerner George L. White, the university’s treasurer and music professor, along with African American pianist Ella Sheppard in 1871.
Fisk University, originally known as the Fisk Free Colored School, had been struggling financially year to year since its opening in 1866.
To fund and keep the university open, White had set the group on a singing tour. Initially, the tour was local, but expanded to travelling along the former Underground Railroad route.
[MUSIC: Testimony plays, by Cast of Characters; fades in and plays underneath narration]
Christen: It wasn’t until their concert at Oberlin College in Ohio that things started to look up.
Up until then, they had been performing with a classical repertoire, with Spirituals as their encore. But for this concert, it was a program entirely comprised of Spirituals.
Their audience, mainly of white ministers, responded well to the new program—along with other churches in the North. The attention the Fisk Jubilee Singers were getting singing Spirituals eventually took them to places like the White House. They even performed before Queen Victoria, in Great Britain!
[MUSIC: Testimony plays, by Cast of Characters, along with Against the Clock playing, by Nu Alkemi$t; Testimony fades into silence as the next narration begins, with Against the Clock playing underneath]
Christen: While the Jubilee Singers did play an important part—preserving Spirituals in the general sense—it was vastly different from its original performance within the plantation setting.
The Singers had simplified Spirituals significantly by adding choral multi-part harmony, for concert, and removing any trace of despair or protest within its text. This made the music more aligned with what white audiences were comfortable hearing.
A manifestation of the values those southern Black ministers had wanted to appeal to. This change fed into the idea that the Fisk Jubilee Singers were "helping to 'lift up' the African American race" by doing so.
[MUSIC: Against the Clock plays, by Nu Alkemi$t; fades into silence]
Christen: Again, showing that the hope to have any power within the American society....would have to come from giving up the power that comes from expressing your own identity.
The elements of Call and Response, heterophony, and Signifying were not present in these versions of the Spirituals. The very things that made the Spirituals.....Spirituals.
If these features weren’t being preserved here, then where?
Well, that depends on what you view as preservation. For this topic, I look to the perspective brought by the American historian, Lawrence Levine.
[MUSIC: Tomorrow Things plays, by GLASWING]
The Here and Now
Christen: When it comes to culture, Levine talks about how its strength comes from a culture’s ability to adapt and transform within a new situation—not by staying exactly the same. Because that may be viewed more as “stagnation not life.”
Portia K. Maultsby—Professor Emerita of Ethnomusicology at Indiana University—speaks about the transformations of African traditions in America.
In Maultsby’s discussions on the topic, she summarizes that even if West African elements may not survive as they were, the culture concepts do. Not just surviving, but thriving in the new ways they appear.
As we talk about Spirituals past the plantations, we can look at it through the lens of how it’s transformed and the concepts that carry on. Some of the original characteristics of Spirituals influenced the genres that followed it.
[MUSIC: Tomorrow Things plays, by GLASWING; fades into silence as the previous narration ends]
Christen: The secular African American music of Blues shares the shouting and moaning from Spirituals and ring shouts...
[MUSIC: Go Down Moses plays, performed by Louis Armstrong with the Sy Oliver Choir and The All Stars]
Christen: The call and response aspect was also used...
[MUSIC: Go Down Moses plays, performed by Louis Armstrong with the Sy Oliver Choir and The All Stars; comes up to provide an example and then plays underneath narration]
Christen: Same with the coded lyrics made from Signifying...
[MUSIC: Go Down Moses plays, performed by Louis Armstrong with the Sy Oliver Choir and The All Stars; fades into silence]
Christen: And those same traits are seen in the musical genre of Gospel. From the time after Emancipation to the 1930s, Spirituals had transformed into Gospel due to the revival of including these practices into worship.
Much of the musical meanings from Spirituals, still found within Gospel, helped to further create major social change.
[MUSIC: Keep Your Hand on the Plow plays, performed by Mahalia Jackson; plays alone for a bit and then plays beneath to the next narration]
Christen: Gospel had become a key vehicle within the Civil Rights movement. In a time where it was more important than ever to unify the Black community, the group participation of Spirituals were highlighted here. Songs like “Keep Your Hand on the Plow,” which you’re hearing now, helped to drive the movement forward.
Using the approaches and lyrical text of Spirituals, Gospel gave new life to the original purpose of them. Where the jubilee songs of slavery talked about hope for freedom, Gospel during the Civil Rights era talked about hope for racial equality and for injustices to end.
[MUSIC: Keep Your Hand on the Plow plays, performed by Mahalia Jackson; fades into silence]
Christen: And when you look at today’s protest music—for movements such as the Black Lives Matter movement—it unifies the Black community in new ways.
Rap is generally the musical style used for protesting these days, sharing its likeness to Spirituals. But when you compare the two in how they mobilize a group, rap does it differently.
With today’s protest music, a song could be released and then played at a protest the very next day! It has even more ability to quickly affect and change things.
While present-day protest music may not be centered around one song or piece of music to define it, when compared to Spirituals during the Civil Rights Era, instead it’s defined by multiple songs that each have their own messages to bring to the movements.
Though they’ve been transformed, those messages continue to highlight the same injustices the Black community has faced during slavery—protesting against the brutality, inequality, and discrimination seen within the American society and system.
And the transformative characteristics of Spirituals have the power to come back in new ways in future settings.
[MUSIC: Sound of Da Police plays, by KRS ONE, along with Life in Binary playing, by Falls; Sound of Da Police fades into silence before the next narration starts, with Life in Binary plays underneath]
From my research for this episode, one of the many words that I’ve come away with is survival. I mean, it certainly rings true. And it’s seen in West African music’s journey during slavery. Weaved throughout the messages of Spirituals...
To have vital parts of a way of life, not only manage to survive, but transform itself under the circumstances of something like slavery is powerful. To continue to engage in things that emphasize your humanity, when it seems like everything else says you don’t have any, is powerful. And the hope that it brings, like nature blooming from cracked, hard concrete...is powerful.
I’m not tryin’ to beat you over the head with this, really! But it is so amazing to see how the connection between music and community thrived despite it all.
[MUSIC: Life in Binary plays, by Falls; fades into silence]
Showing that music has the power to shape so much of history.
Outro
[MUSIC: Constellations plays, by Chelsea McGough]
Christen: Thank you for listening to Power Play. This was part two of a two part episode series. The creator of Power Play is none other than Karbo. This episode was researched and edited by myself, Christen Crumpler, and produced by Tamberly Ferguson. Production help and advisement by Frank Dominguez and Bruce Scott.
The music you heard today was “Judgement Day Outside My Door” by Lost Ghosts; “Early in the Mornin’” performed by Unidentified performers at State Penitentiary, Camp #10, Parchman, Mississippi; “Hoe Emma Hoe” performed by Larry Earl Jr., Christina Lane and Willie Wright; “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child” performed by Hope Foye; “Steal Away” performed by the Fisk Jubilee Singers; “Of A Feather” by Falls; “Go down, Moses” performed by Oral Moses; “Deshacer” by Azteca X; “Testimony” by Cast of Characters; “Against the Clock” by Nu Alkemi$t; “Tomorrow Things” by GLASWING; “Go Down Moses” performed by Louis Armstrong with the Sy Oliver Choir and The All Stars; “Keep Your Hand on the Plow” performed by Mahalia Jackson; “Sound of Da Police”, by KRS ONE; “Life in Binary” by Falls; and “Constellations” by Chelsea McGough
Research regarding this episode can also be found within the episode’s show notes.
Lastly, thank you to you—our listeners—for tuning into this episode of Power Play. Power Play is presented by WDAV Classical Public Radio. If you like what you heard, you can find more information on this episode, and other great programming, at wdav.org/subscribe. Catch ya in the next one.